Emotional Eating, Everything You Need To Know.

The knowledge which helped me burn more than 80 kilos and build a healthier version of me, use this for you.

(Non-Members read for free Here.)

If you read any of my other articles, you probably heard how I went from 177 Kg to 90.

4 Years ago I made a decision to get healthier and take care of my body and mind and managed to burn a lot of fat.

It had its shares of highs and lows, and is a never ending process but I still hold strong.

Nowadays, after literally removing the weight of another person from my shoulders and becoming someone completely different,

I realized Emotional Eating has always been one of my biggest problems,

and from what I see,

It also happens with lots of people.

What’s Emotional Eating?

Emotional Eating is when you try to satisfy your mind by forcing your brain to release hormones through food consumption.

Read that again and let it sink until you can understand.

There are two main reasons why we eat:

Reason 1- The Body Needs Fuel.

In certain way, our body is a machine, a biological machine, and as any mechanism in the world, it needs something to run on,

It needs fuel. Aka. Calories

When your body lacks of fuel, you feel hunger,

Hunger is like that light which lights on the pannel and tells You need to put gas because tank is ending.

Kust like in a car, when the gas tank is getting empty, you put more in it.

That is the correct reason to eat.

Your body needs fuel.

Reason number 2- The brain is asking for hormones, Aka. Emotional Eating.

Imagine You arrived home 2 hours late because of bad-traffic.

You are tired after a hard day of work, and while going for a shower you slide your finger through your phone screen on your favorite app and order two pizzas,

4 cheese and funghi, is that ok?

When the pizzas arrive you are ready to sit in comfort on the couch with a big glass of soda, and will automatically shove food down your throat while binge-watching some series,

and do you know the chocolate bar, you allegedly plead to eat one small square,

boom the entire bar is gone, because you were bored,

And now since you just had dinner and your friends invited you to go out, when you arrive on the table you order something to drink,

and since everyone is eating something I guess the only option left is to order some fries, right?

At least you can control your social anxiety by picking fries and chewing since you are supposed to be socializing and not on your phone.

All of those were emotional eating, not a single time you ate because you were hungry, maybe the first pizza, but the second one?

This is the kind of relationship with food it will destroy your body and your health.

Everytime you are eating not because your body needs fuel, but because your brain craves for “mental comfort hormonal shots”, is Emotional Eating.

A simple question here, answer me in the comments please.

Why did you eat last time? It sounds dumb I know, but,

What was the last thing you ate? Was it really because you were hungry or any other reason?

Hunger is a pretty strong sensation, I’m sure you would remember.

Maybe it was just “time to eat” no?

Escape or Deal.

The older I became the more I realize one thing:

We all need escape valves.

We are humans, not machines, as much as we try to live as if we were,

We are not.

We are beings filled with emotions, struggles, challenges, daily-battles which put us to test at all times, and it either kills us or makes us stronger,

In an ideal world we probably would be sat down meditating like monks on the top or Himalaya to deal with all of this sh*t without worrying about bills.

In the real world we deal with it in the way we can shove down until the end if we don’t die from heart attack or stress and most release pressure through external sources,

doesn’t matter what

I like to divide these external sources we use to release pressure(escape valves) in 2 categories:

• The good ones.
• The bad ones.

The good ones are things considered good for you, obviously.

Things such as practicing sports, reading books, listening music, engaging in some activity, doing something productive, getting sunlight, rich nutrient food,

all the stuff you already know it’s good for you, they can be considered good escape valves.

The bad ones basically everything you can easily find laying around.

Sugar, Alcohol, cigarettes, porn, even sex to a certain level, from coffee to cocaine, infinite scrolling to using drugs, can fall in “Bad”,

it all depends on the use you give and there are many more but It would take an entire book if I was going to focus on it,

but you get the idea of what could be a Good Source or a Bad One.

Regardless of being a Good or Bad source, people use them as “escape from harsh reality”.

And most of them act in the “same way” in our brain.

Related to emotional eating.

the reason why we have escape valve is:

We need to feel good,

and most of the time we are not feeling good,

Life has a special way to beat us up and make us feel like sh*t,

And most of us don’t have the money and time to pay for therapy.

Plus, if we are being honest here, the biggest part of society doesn’t even realize they all sick and need therapy,

They choose the easy path and keep escaping from reality instead of facing it.

Each one of us do it in a different way,

some more destructive, some less, but we all do,

We all need to feel better at some moments.

Hormones, these f*ckers.

In a “simplistic chemical approach”.

Human emotions are nothing else than hormones being delivered to our receptors.

Our emotions are caused by our endocrine system, in a simple way the endocrine system is a group of glands in our body (mainly in the brain, throat, stomach and gut), in charge of hormonal release,

Basically if for any reason the glands get activated, they release hormones in our body.

And out receptors get them and lots of different things happen in our body.

I have no idea on the exact existing number of hormones in our body, and what actions release what,

but this is basically how emotions work in the physical body aspect of it.

(In a quick google search during edit phase I’ve discovered over 50)

The big four hormones,

Dopamine, Endorfin, Serotonin, Oxytocin.

They are known as the “Happy Hormones”

Especially dopamine, also called “the feel good” hormone.

What these hormones make when released in our bodies they gives us a sensation of “feeling good”,

From simple acts such as hugging someone you love, to more complex actions, they get released in your system, and you feel good for it.

It is related to our reward system.

That braingasm you have when chocolate touches your tongue? Dopamine.

That sensation of happiness after achieving a small task you promised you would do? Dopamine.

The invincibility feeling after the high intensity running or gym session? Endorfin shot mixed with dopamine.

Those seconds you get out of your body and fall back when reaching the climax of an orgasm? A bomb of mixed hormones.

Not exactly like that, since most of them work all together, but you get the idea.

You can read more about hormones here.

The important part here is that our good emotions come from hormones being released, and most of our “feeling bad” comes from lack or imbalance of them.

Triggering shots.

For us to get those hormonal shots there are basically two ways our system can release them.

For easier understanding, I categorize them in my mind as:

• “Expensive” dopamine releasers.
• “Cheap” dopamine releasers.

Expensive ones are the ones you should focus on, they are good for you, they come from things and actions, you need to put effort in to get them.

You have to work for them, They are expensive.

Per Example.

Going for that run in the morning , any physical activity, achieving a goal, completing a task you put on yourself, having sex (actual sex) ,

any activity which for you to “receive a prize” first you actually have to put in effort,

Can be an “Expensive Dopamine Source”

The “Cheap” ones are the things you don’t need any effort, just take comfort action and your hormonal receptors will drown while you feel a bliss of heaven,

Until the stream is cut and the lack makes you feel like sh*t again, but that’s for another talk, Have you heard of relapse?

Things like smoking, drinking and using drugs are the biggest examples.

If people don’t receive the “hormonal shot” aka. dose from these sources, the damaged and once flooded receptors in their body stop transmitting enough of hormones and they get very out of balance. (being polite here).

Have you seen how someone who’s quitting smoke gets stressed for anything? His escape valve is closed.

In a lower scale there are other actions which act in the same way,

your brain gets addicted to the action and they start to work as triggers to release hormones in a cheap way.

Porn, is probably the biggest example out there.

The way porn acts in your brain is pretty much like any other addiction, the idea of “reaching climax” easily just from typing something and receiving visual stimulus, makes the brain get addicted to it, and even causes lots of other problems, since sex is physical and sensorial, not only visual.

But I won’t focus on this here, maybe in a future article.

Emotional Eating is another example of action which easily becomes a trigger in your brain and will make you try to get satisfied by eating all the time,

it makes you feel good and even satisfied for a while,

but, after the cheap hormonal shot passes and you are no longer satisfied,

The calories of unhealthy stuff you just consumed stay in your body.

And now you’ll feel even worse,

Because now instead of just sad, you are also fatter.

Instead of one problem to deal with, you created two.

How do you deal with it?

Change Your Mind

The first mental change I adopted to deal with eating disorders for myself was this:

“Food is not fuel for the mind”

To deal with my emotional eating disorder, I realized it was easier this way, I didn’t try to solve the emotional side first, I knew I wouldn’t do it,

there are too much sh*t under that blanket.

For me it’s harder to deal with emotions first, emotions have lots of “maybe”s on them,

And since I am very rational, dealing with the technical aspect of anything is always easier.

For me it makes more sense to think:

“Eating is not the solution, it is not how you deal with any of it, find another way” and just put the food aside,

than,

“Oh I deal with my emotional issues first and then I stop eating, but first I need to feel good”.

One you’re solving the problem, the other you’re delaying to keep doing it in your comfort zone.

When you take away the power or action from an emotion it gets easier to deal with it.

If you want to get healthier and take care of yourself, You need to get conscious.

No one but yourself has the power to do that,

Not me, not a doctor, a personal trainer, or anything,

Only you.

And my 2nd tip to cope with it?

Every time I’m reaching out for food Is to myself :

“Why Am I Eating?”

And I’m honest with myself,

After all, it really doesn’t matter if the answer is “Because I’m sad and this chocolate will make me feel better”,

You can eat if for that reason if you want, even knowing it won’t be good for you, you can and you know it will work.

The objective of this question before putting food in the mouth,

is not for you to stop eating,

is to get conscious about the action and stop shoving food down on automatic mode,

Only sick people stream down food.

The goal of asking youself all the time before eating this question is to become conscious of what you are doing,

To realize, if you’re eating because your body needs fuel or for any other reason,

and if you actually have an eating disorder and use food as an escape valve,

the first thing to deal with it,

Is to be honest and conscious about it,

otherwise you’ll always use food as an escape valve.

if you understand it, you can deal with it, you won’t be entering a fight blind.

Remember:

Food Is Not Fuel for the Mind.

“Why Am I Eating?”

_________________________________________________________________

Yo Folks, thanks for reading up to here,

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And If you have any doubts make sure to leave a comment down below, don’t forget to tell me:

Why did you eat last time?

–DGaspar.

**poof** disappear in magic smoke.